Martinique

Martinique is an overseas region and department of France, located in the Windward Islands of the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean Sea. In 1502, the Spanish explorer Christopher Columbus landed on the island, which he named Madinina ("island of flowers"); when France settled the uncolonized island in 1635, it was named Martinique. The island was mostly settled by exiled Protestant Huguenots, and the French set up plantations on the island. The Martinican city of Saint-Pierre was completely destroyed in a 1902 volcanic eruption, killing 30,000 people, but it was later rebuilt. In 2013, the island had a population of 385,551 people.